I’ve got my hosting family arranged through the Siraj centre, and I also applied for some activities. And the centre emailed me that the activities were cancelled due to lack of people, and also to come to the centre on Friday to get the refund. I went to the Siraj centre because today is the Friday. They sent the email a week ago, and when I went to the centre, they said that the money is not ready.

So I just wasted an hour. From the centre, I took a taxi to the bus stop in Bethlehem. The bus goes to Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. There I took the light railway to the central bus station.

Jerusalem Central Bus Station

When I went to the ticket office in the central bus station, a guy approached to me asking where I am going.

He: Hey my friend, where are you going?
Je: To Eilat.
He: All the tickets to Eilat are sold out.
Je: What? The whole day ticket?
He: Yes. How about private transportation?
Je: How much?
He: 200.
Je: In Shekel or Dollar? Wait, let me ask the ticket office first.

When a stranger call you a friend, that means you need to watch out and be careful. I asked the ticket office, and it was true that the ticket was sold out, but there were lots of seats left for the following bus at 2pm. I was more than OK to wait 2 hours rather than paying stupid amount of money.

So I went to Eilat again and stayed at the same Hostel.

I did not have a chance to write about my excavation team at Megiddo. The Lachish excavation did not have much people because most volunteers left Israel right after the war began due to the proximity of the location to Gaza. And finally the site was shut down. Actually most sites in southern Israel were closed. And more than half of them left Israel, but some people like me joined the northern sites such as Megiddo. The UCLA students were digging at Jaffa, but they also joined Megiddo.

My team, digging the same square were mostly from UCLA. There was a girl named Sarah, Iranian American, and 18 years old. She is the youngest in the whole Megiddo excavation people. She will study in George Washington University for Archaeology, and she began her expedition since 10 years old.

Another girl who I would not reveal her name was quite lazy, but extremely talkative. Other team members told me that she works only two days a week, and that was true. She actually worked two days a week, and she reported herself sick for the other days while she looked healthier than any other people. She told me that recently she came out as LGBT, but is not seeing anyone yet.

Two girls from UCLA, named Vanessa and Jennah told me that they are a team and their name is Va-Jennah whose pronunciation is very similar to the lady’s sexual organ. So I asked them if that implies that, and they said yes. They are the very best workers at my team.

Canadians mostly left Israel or cancelled their trip to Israel, but quite many American students remained. I guess Americans are more brave or they are used to the gun violence.